The present disclosure relates to improvements to management of metadata for use in computer storage systems. In more detail, the present disclosure relates to snapshot operations related to a data volume.
In current practice, metadata is accessed and read from time to time. When the metadata is accessed, a “snapshot” of relevant metadata can be produced and stored electronically. The metadata can include a top level page table with at least one top level entry, e.g., a base volume, and one or more metadata bottom level entries, which can include the snapshot of the base volume. In order to capture all relevant metadata, when producing a snapshot of a top level entry (base volume), each bottom level entry of the base volume is duplicated in the snapshot process for the top level entry. In other words, at present, a snapshot actually allocates duplicate metadata of the base volume, when the snapshot of the base volume is produced. This creates unnecessary and redundant duplication of data, leading to storage inefficiencies.